News & Events

By Shannon Glennon, AI Technology Transformation Specialist, Syracuse University ITS 

Claude can do a lot more than answer questions and write first drafts. If you haven’t explored beyond the basics yet, you’re leaving some of the most useful functionality on the table. Here are five features worth trying. 

Claude Can Remember Things 

Claude has a memory feature that learns your preferences, role and context over time—so every conversation isn’t starting from scratch. Once it knows you’re a faculty member who writes in AP Style or a staff member who manages event logistics, it factors that in automatically. 

Try it: Open a new chat and tell Claude your role, your typical audience, and one formatting preference. Then ask it to “add to memory” for future conversations. 

You Can Upload Files and Actually Do Something With Them 

Claude can read your documents—syllabi, reports, meeting notes, data files—and then do real work with them. Summarize, extract key points, reformat or generate a follow-up action list. It goes well beyond just “uploading a PDF”. 

Try it: Upload a meeting agenda or report and ask: “Summarize the key decisions and draft a list of action items with owner names.” 

Claude Can Browse the Web 

A common assumption is that AI tools are frozen in time. Claude’s web search feature changes that. It can look up current information, pull from live pages and help you research topics that need up-to-date data—not just what was true two years ago. 

Try it: Ask Claude to search for recent articles on a topic relevant to your work and summarize what’s new in the past six months. 

You Can Give Claude a Role 

Assigning Claude a persona dramatically improves what it produces. When you tell Claude to act as an instructional designer, a skeptical editor or an HR professional, it shifts its entire approach to match that lens. 

Try it: Start your next prompt with “You are a plain-language editor reviewing this for a non-technical audience”—then paste in something you’ve written. 

Claude Can Write Code—Even If You Can’t 

You don’t have to be a developer to benefit from this one. Claude can generate Excel formulas, build simple data trackers, clean up messy spreadsheet data or automate small repetitive tasks—all from a plain-English description of what you need. 

Try it: Describe a repetitive task you do in Excel and ask Claude to write a formula or script to handle it. 

You don’t have to use all five at once—start with the one that sounds most useful and go from there. The features that make the biggest difference are often the ones hiding in plain sight, and chances are it won’t be the last new thing you discover! 

By Shannon Glennon, AI Technology Transformation Specialist, Syracuse University ITS 

If you’ve been using Canva to create flyers, social posts or presentation graphics, here’s some news worth knowing; Syracuse University provides free access to Adobe Express—and it’s worth making the switch. 

What Is Adobe Express? 

Adobe Express is a browser-based and mobile design tool that lets you create polished graphics, short videos, flyers, social media content and more (no design experience required). And it’s already available to all faculty and staff. 

What Can You Do With It? 

Adobe Express lets you quickly build branded materials using customizable templates, drag-and-drop editing and access to thousands of stock photos and icons. You can resize designs for different platforms in seconds and animate graphics for social media—all from one place. 

One of the first things worth doing when you set up your account is creating a Brand Kit. Load it with Syracuse University’s official colors (Orange #F76900 and Navy #000E54) and approved fonts and every design you create will automatically stay on-brand without starting from scratch each time. For more information, check out the Syracuse University Brand Sharepoint site. 

What About AI? 

This is where Adobe Express stands out. Powered by Adobe Firefly — Adobe’s AI tool trained exclusively on licensed and public domain content — the platform includes several AI tools: 

• Generate Image: Create custom visuals from a text prompt, commercially safe and ready to use in university materials. 

• Generate Video: Type a description and generate short video clips for use as b-roll, background footage or social content—no camera required. 

• Clip Maker: Have a recording of a department talk, faculty panel or campus event? Clip Maker uses AI to identify the best moments, add captions and reformat the footage into social-ready clips automatically. 

• Dynamic Animation: Bring a static flyer or graphic to life with one click—great for Instagram Reels or event announcements. 

Because Firefly is trained on licensed content, everything you generate is safe to use in university communications without copyright concerns. 

Getting Started 

Sign in at express.adobe.com using your NetID credentials. Your account is already waiting for you. 

Remember, you can always use your AI tools such as Claude to ask how to do anything in Adobe. If you have a question about how to do something, just ask Claude!  

Every time you connect to the internet on campus — whether you’re submitting an assignment, checking your email or streaming music between classes — your device is making thousands of tiny behind-the-scenes requests to reach websites and online services. And not all of those destinations are safe.

That’s where Information Technology Services comes in.

In just one month, ITS automatically blocked 2.9 million malicious or suspicious connections before they ever reached a device on the Syracuse University network. That means 2.9 million potential threats — phishing attempts, malware, data theft schemes — stopped in their tracks every month, often without anyone on campus even noticing.

This protection is powered by Infoblox BloxOne, a security tool that Syracuse University has relied on for the past year. It monitors network traffic in real time and automatically blocks harmful connections before they can cause damage. It runs quietly in the background, 24/7, so you don’t have to think about it. Whether you’re in a residence hall, a classroom or the library, Infoblox BloxOne is constantly watching for anything that looks out of place and acting fast to shut it down.

Keeping Syracuse University’s network safe is an ongoing commitment — one that ITS takes seriously so that students, faculty and staff can focus on what matters most.